~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny at small things

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Well, good morning … it’s a cool 64 degrees now (but slated to go to 90 by mid-day). I’ve got the windows open while I can and the 17-year cicadas are having a field day out there … sounds like a bad 60s sci-fi movie of an alien invasion.

But on to the good stuff: knitting and books!

As you can see by the knitting draped atop the book, I am in scarf-knitting mode. This beauty is a shop model of my Blooming Liriope design. The original was knit in pure cashmere … like knitting with butter. This version is knit using Marks & Kattens Alpaca Silk (70% alpaca, 30% silk) which is just about as soft as the pure cashmere and in fun colors at Dog House Yarns. I’m loving knitting with this fingering-weight yarn — it doesn’t split, has nice stitch definition (wait till you see it blocked), and the green is a glorious, rich, dark green. This will be the shop model that I’ll use for a class I’m teaching at the end of June.

I also finished the shop model sweater I was working on last week — the Season Spanning Cardi – Revisited!. This sweater is a fun knit and is completely seamless from the knit-all-at-once body to the knitted-in border bands. Even the set-in sleeves are knit in the round from the armhole down; they’re shaped by short rows.

I am in the process of completely re-writing this design, including adding larger sizes. The original design only went to a 1X; Season Spanning Cardi Revisited pattern will add sizes 2X-5X … and here’s the link to the revised pattern.

Here’s a picture of the finished sweater … don’t you love the buttons and the color is a beachy-bright pink. The yarn is Plymouth’s Fantasy Naturale (100% worsted weight, mercerized cotton).

On the reading front … I’ve just started Pope Benedict’s latest book (literally just published in early May), Prayer. I love Pope Benedict’s books — they’re easy to read and yet are so full of the good, the true and the beautiful. This one, longer than most of his, is a compilation of his catechetical audiences given between May 2011 and October 2012. He talks about praying the psalms, the history of prayer, prayers to the Blessed Mother and many others. It’s a beautiful book.

So what’s on your needles and your reading table? Wanna come play over at Ginny’s …